All-women team from Indian Navy begins journey to circumnavigate the globe

Newspatrolling: In a historic moment for India, Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today flagged off the mission of the all-women crew of the Indian Navy, who will be circumnavigating the globe on the indigenously built sail boat INSV Tarini. This is the first time that such a mission has been launched by an all-women crew from India. The mission named ‘Navika Sagar Parikrama’ was flagged off today at the INS Mandovi Naval training base near Panaji. Goa Chief Minister and former Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar was also present at this historic event.

The mission to circumnavigate the globe will be completed in five stages. There will be only four stops along the way (Fremantle, Australia; Lyttleton, New Zealand; Port Stanley, the Falklands; and Cape Town, South Africa). The stops will be only for rations and supplies and for carrying out any repairs and maintenance. The mission would be complete when the sail boat returns back to Goa in April 2018.

The crew members of the boat are Lt. Cdr Vartika Joshi (Rishikesh), Pratibha Jamwal (Kullu), Lt. Cdr. Swathi P. (Visakhapatnam), Lt. Aishwarya Boddapati (Hyderabad), Lt. Sh. Vijaya Devi (Manipur) and Lt. Payal Gupta (Uttarakhand). The crew has already received rigorous training for the mission. They have registered around 20,000 nautical miles of sailing on board the INSV Mhadei and Tarini as part of their training. They have already completed voyages to Mauritius and Cape Town.